But while the government has abandoned plans for a database of all internet
communications, it is currently consulting on plans to force CSPs to collect
more information on internet activity and process it for authorities to examine.

In a response to the consultation, the ICO said the government has not yet
made a good enough case for the routine collection and retention of further
communications data covering the entire population.

"The ICO recognises the value that communications data has for the prevention
and detection of crime and the prosecution of offenders. However, this in itself
is not justification enough for mandating the collection of all possible
communications data on all subscribers by all CSPs," says the ICO response
document.

The ICO said the government does not appear to have fully investigated other
options that may exist between the two extremes of a single, centralised
database of all communications data and doing nothing.

The privacy watchdog is concerned that current safeguards are not adequate to
deal with the further collection and processing of communications data by CSPs
to ensure they are doing it properly.

The response emphasises that there is a danger CSPs could use the information
for their own purposes in the course of collecting it for the government.

Last month a report by academics at the London School of Economics concluded
that the government's data collection proposals represented a "phase change" in
the relationship between the citizen and the state, and would place an undue
burden on CSPs.

An MPs' all-party privacy group is also examining the government's proposals
and met for the first time earlier this month.

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